The
pressurizatin of members of the Free Trade Union of Belarus continues
at At the Babruisk plant of tractor parts and units. The conflict
between the adminsitratioon and the trade union has a long history
and the head of the trade union organization even had to go to court
to get the right to be let to the territory of the plant.

Recently,
the factory management has chosen the tactics of monetary
underpayments to FTUB members.

"The FTUB members weren't
issued with wasge bonuses, explaining it with the fact that according
to the collective agreement, sigbed by the plant management and the
official trade union in March, hfinancial bonuses do not apply to the
free trade union," says the FTUB member Aksana Kernazhytskaya.
"But what about the people who do not belong to any of the
unions? We learned that they paid the wage bonuses. Then it turns out
that the problem is that we are members of the free trade
union.

Aksana Karnazhytskaya says she discussed the problem of
the deprival of the wage bonuses with the head of the workshop,
Mikhail Vayanets, saying the bonuses were earned by all workers, to
which he responded that she would be paid the money if she move to
the official trade union.

"Few of us are left at the
FTUB, you know, but it's not a question of money, it is a matter of
conscience," says another FTUB member, Iryna Korshunava. "They
tried to dismiss me, and now there are problems with wage bonuses.
However, the plant management does not understand that by depriving
us of the bonuses they punish not us, but our children. They are
trying to intimidate us. I have only one question in this regard: why
does the plant manager feel such impunity that even court verdicts
mean nothing to him?"

"Recently, we have noticed
that money for "Red Cross" were exacted from the wages of
all workers, and were very indignant about it, not because there was
a lot of money (just 10,000 rubles), but because we were not even
asked if we wanted it", adds Aksana Kernazhytskaya. "For
instance, we, as members of the free trade union, were deprived of
the opportunity to use the library, sports complex, were deprived of
wage bonuses, but the money for the "Red Cross" are exacted
from us like from all other workers. We raised this issue, other
workers joined in, and we were promised to be returned the money in
the next month.

The leader of the FTUB unit at the plant
Mikhail Kavalkou says that members of the free trade union face
increasing discimination at the plant.

"At first the
plant management and the official trade union sign a discriminative
agreement, then apply further financial pressure. Is it right to pay
the bonuses earned by all workers only to members of the official
trade union? The deputy head of the plant on ideology Uladzimir
Yeliseyenka refuses to give comments to journalists, disclaims any
responsibility. However, many things depend on him, and everyone
knows it well enough," sums up Mikhail Kavalkou.